EU migrants under 30 could get automatic two-year visas to work in the UK after Brexit

EU citizens aged under 30 could be offered automatic two-year visas to come and work in the UK after Brexit.

The idea was floated yesterday by the Migration Advisory Committee, which has been commissioned by Home Secretary Amber Rudd to review the economic costs and benefits of EU migration and examine potential border controls.

The independent body used a call for evidence yesterday to suggest that a similar scheme for young people from New Zealand, Australia and Canada could be extended to the EU once free movement ends in 2019.

EU citizens aged under 30 could be offered automatic two-year visas to come and work in the UK after Brexit (file picture)

It said: ‘There are a number of reasons for this – younger migrants have a longer working life ahead of them so have a higher chance of making a net positive contribution to the public finances, and they are perhaps considered to assimilate more successfully.’

The report does not affect the rights of the 3.2 million EU citizens already living in the UK, who have already been told they will be allowed to stay.

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But it suggests that, in future, younger migrants interested in coming here could be prioritised, either by giving them more ‘points’ in a new visa scheme or by setting a ‘lower salary threshold’ they need to clear before being allowed to settle in the UK.

The idea to allow young EU citizens to work in the UK after Brexit was floated by the Migration Advisory Committee, which has been commissioned by Home Secretary Amber Rudd

The scheme would offer young people similar rights to free movement, although migrants could not necessarily use it to settle permanently in the UK.

The review also considers other changes such as regional schemes, which would offer migrants who want to live and work outside London a lower salary threshold ‘to take into account regional variations in living costs and pay’.

Other measures considered by the committee include ‘sectoral schemes’, where limits would be placed on the number of workers allowed to come to the UK in different industries, a seasonal worker schemes.